It's a bit disappointing for Russian NT this year. They won VNL but can not squeeze into top 4 in WCH. They will aim at the golden medal in 2022. Leon could play for Polish NT since 2019. Poland is also very competitive.
thank goodness it's not QAT...
It's a bit disappointing for Russian NT this year. They won VNL but can not squeeze into top 4 in WCH. They will aim at the golden medal in 2022. Leon could play for Polish NT since 2019. Poland is also very competitive.
One word: "Peak". If a team performed at the highest level, surely they can't maintain that form/level in just a couple of months into the future. But everyone seems to agree that Russia was not playing at their best, Mikhaylov in particular received some criticism due to his form during WCH (or lack thereof). Also, WCH 2022 will be Mikhaylov's last chance to win the only medal he doesn't have in possession, same for Muserskiy and other legionaries like Butko, etc.
One word: "Peak". If a team performed at the highest level, surely they can't maintain that form/level in just a couple of months into the future. But everyone seems to agree that Russia was not playing at their best, Mikhaylov in particular received some criticism due to his form during WCH (or lack thereof). Also, WCH 2022 will be Mikhaylov's last chance to win the only medal he doesn't have in possession, same for Muserskiy and other legionaries like Butko, etc.
I think either Butko or Grankin will be out of 2022 WCH. They are too old after 4 years. Kovalev will be the main setter for Russian NT. Muserskiy will be in the team if he has no big injury. Even Mikhaylov can not guarantee his spot in 2022. The WC 2019 is the first test.
I think either Butko or Grankin will be out of 2022 WCH. They are too old after 4 years.
Watch both Bruno and William be there as well. 
Apparently we already applied to host 2026 World Championships 
I'm sure the bidding process will be fair and square and FIVB definitely won't go for easy money.
For real, can someone explain to me why the Handball World Championship can be hosted by Egypt or Tunisia, but apparently FIVB thinks 99% of countries in the world are unable to host any volleyball events?
It's really getting tiring that for some time now any worldwide event is hosted by Poland/Italy/Brazil/Japan etc. What about Germany? Austria? Czech Republic? I remember euro 2011 being by far the best in terms of spectator attendance and the atmosphere in the crowd.
Not to mention that their obsession with Japan in particular has reached such state that it clearly feels like they're trying to promote the Japanese team. The japanes have had to win only 2 or 3 games to qualify to RIO, while we were forced to win 13!
Honestly, I was happy when we got to host the Championship back in 2014, but starting then, it felt like half of the big events were hosted by us. People will simply start becoming bored with volleyball if this continues (Actually, the overall attendence during the 2017 was way lower than the attendence during Handball Euro 2016, and that's saying something since one of the games was held in a stadium with over 65.000 fans present.)
They're going to make volleyball into another ice hockey which is popular in the top countries like Canada, Finland or the U.S, but if the country doesn't participate in the top division of World Championship, hardly anyone cares about the sport.
Display MoreApparently we already applied to host 2026 World Championships
For real, can someone explain to me why the Handball World Championship can be hosted by Egypt or Tunisia, but apparently FIVB thinks 99% of countries in the world are unable to host any volleyball events?
It's really getting tiring that for some time now any worldwide event is hosted by Poland/Italy/Brazil/Japan etc. What about Germany? Austria? Czech Republic? I remember euro 2011 being by far the best in terms of spectator attendance and the atmosphere in the crowd.
Not to mention that their obsession with Japan in particular has reached such state that it clearly feels like they're trying to promote the Japanese team. The japanes have had to win only 2 or 3 games to qualify to RIO, while we were forced to win 13!
Honestly, I was happy when we got to host the Championship back in 2014, but starting then, it felt like half of the big events were hosted by us. People will simply start becoming bored with volleyball if this continues (Actually, the overall attendence during the 2017 was way lower than the attendence during Handball Euro 2016, and that's saying something since one of the games was held in a stadium with over 65.000 fans present.)
They're going to make volleyball into another ice hockey which is popular in the top countries like Canada, Finland or the U.S, but if the country doesn't participate in the top division of World Championship, hardly anyone cares about the sport.
You can't blame FIVB
Italy and Bulgaria co hosted World Championship last year, but Bulgaria failed to present a great organizer.
Except Japan, no country in Asia wants to invest much money in men's volleyball, maybe Iran does (but I am not sure).
Not to mention that their obsession with Japan in particular has reached such state that it clearly feels like they're trying to promote the Japanese team. The japanes have had to win only 2 or 3 games to qualify to RIO, while we were forced to win 13!
JPN didn't make to rio.
The reasoning that Japan gets a number of tournaments is that the Japanese federation with the help of Japanese TV companies (Who are also on the FIVB broadcast team, as it Polsat) put up the money. Additionally, Italy gets a number of tournaments due to their being successful pro leagues for the men and women.
FIVB uses China as well on the Women’s side wither hosting the world Grand Prix and now VNL Finals.
With Poland having won the last two men’s world championships, the fan interest in theory is there. The interest is from the federation and potentially Polish sponsors.
If fans already know the players from their local league, they will probably come watch the championships.
Japan in 2016 had to play in the World Cup (hosts of course), and would have needed to finish in the top 2 to qualify for Rio. Then they had the final qualifier as well and still did not. Poland would have made it in 2015, but lost to Italy 3-1. If the won 2 sets, they would have hit 30 points, and Italy could not match. But the loss combined with too many set losses gave the Italians the sets ratio advantage. And then needed an Argentina win over the USA, which did not happen. Poland was a talented squad, but could not get the wins they needed in Europe qualifying either.
According to an article posted by the Argentine Volleyball Federation today.
There will be a new set up for the qualification for 2022.
The host (Russia) and World Champions (Poland) will qualify directly, which is the same as it has been.
However, for the remaining 22 slots in the tournaments, it will be done as follows.
The top two teams from continental qualification tournaments (AVC, CAVB, CEV, CSV & NORCECA) will automatically clinch their spots. So 10 of the 22 slots.
The remaining 12 slots will have 6 intercontinental pools of 4 teams. The the top two teams of each pool will qualify for the tournament.
Display MoreAccording to an article posted by the Argentine Volleyball Federation today.
There will be a new set up for the qualification for 2022.
The host (Russia) and World Champions (Poland) will qualify directly, which is the same as it has been.
However, for the remaining 22 slots in the tournaments, it will be done as follows.
The top two teams from continental qualification tournaments (AVC, CAVB, CEV, CSV & NORCECA) will automatically clinch their spots. So 10 of the 22 slots.
The remaining 12 slots will have 6 intercontinental pools of 4 teams. The the top two teams of each pool will qualify for the tournament.
Let's hope FIVB haven't completely lost their minds! Although, there is nothing they do that can be considered surprising anymore.
This is simply wrong for a lot of reasons. We have had to live with the fact that a chosen number of teams get only one minimal chance of winning an Olympic quota. But the excuse was that there have to be only 12 teams at the Olympics. Now, if that becomes reality, continental tournaments will be another massacre and the remaining poor souls (of course, not all of them, just a chosen few again, we can be certain) will get a second chance. If you do the simple Math and imagine how the break-down of these 24 teams for the last intercontinental round will look like, you would see that Asia might only end up with 2 teams (from their continental qualifiers) or that European sides like Slovenia, Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria (based on their ranking and/or shape), may not even make it.
I am afraid soon will come the time for me to quit following my favourite sport because of its governing bodies...
Let's hope FIVB haven't completely lost their minds! Although, there is nothing they do that can be considered surprising anymore.
This is simply wrong for a lot of reasons. We have had to live with the fact that a chosen number of teams get only one minimal chance of winning an Olympic quota. But the excuse was that there have to be only 12 teams at the Olympics. Now, if that becomes reality, continental tournaments will be another massacre and the remaining poor souls (of course, not all of them, just a chosen few again, we can be certain) will get a second chance. If you do the simple Math and imagine how the break-down of these 24 teams for the last intercontinental round will look like, you would see that Asia might only end up with 2 teams (from their continental qualifiers) or that European sides like Slovenia, Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria (based on their ranking and/or shape), may not even make it.
I am afraid soon will come the time for me to quit following my favourite sport because of its governing bodies...
Can you elaborate why you think this is a bad system. I find it quite fair to be honest.
Can you elaborate why you think this is a bad system. I find it quite fair to be honest.
I don't engage anyone with my criticism, I'll just explain why this is a bad qualification process from my point of view. I don't know how the continental qualifiers will look like but will try to make an educated guess.
Russia and Poland are set. Then we have continental tournaments with the two best of each zone qualifying. Before, we had quotas, like 10, or 5 for a continent, meaning that there will be a lot of groups and each nation, sometimes via different rounds, had the right to participate. With the FIVB limiting the berths to 2, I doubt there will be the old system with a lot of groups and, say, 30-40 participants per zone. I guess they will again use some ranking to determine who gets invited, as has been the trend for a few years now. It makes sense to have 40 countries (Europe or Asia) when there are 10 or 5 berths, but not any longer when there are only 2. I just think here they will apply the Olympic qualification method inviting a maximum of 8 or 10 teams according to a ranking. This is the part with my educated guess where I fear it won't be fair to all participants.
Let's imagine USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, France, Serbia, Iran, Australia, Egypt, Tunisia get these 10 tickets. Then, we have only a holy number of 24 teams allowed to fight for the remaining 12. Correct, they will surely be assigned according to an international ranking. Will all continents be represented here? How? Is it only the next 24 not-qualified teams per the FIVB ranking that get invited? Will they be seeded per continents or we can have Asian and European groups? This will most probably bring down things to form and not continental quotas anymore, with the best teams grabbing the tickets regardless of continent. It may end up in a predominantly European WCH, for example, leaving North America and Asia with only 2 participating teams (and theoretically, Africa and South America). This might be left to pure chance, won't be an even distribution and totally not the point of a WCH! I guess they won't allow it, though.
My 2 main points against this system are:
1. Intercontinental rounds are the essence of the WCH itself, not (main part of) the qualifiers. The best teams across all continents should be there, not the best in shape. This new system might guarantee better teams or more European teams, for instance, but doesn't guarantee diversity. Which is what a WCH is. And this is the largest (in terms of participants) international volleyball event, after all.
2. Not all teams will have the chance to fight for a WCH spot. I fear only a limited number of teams in Asia, Africa, and Europe will participate in the continental qualification round.
Maybe it's just me. I don't understand what the problem is/was with the normal qualification system.
Can you elaborate why you think this is a bad system. I find it quite fair to be honest.
Well, on first view i would also say that a shift towards a qualifying mode which let the teams battle it out on intercontinental encounters is a step in the right direction. We would have to see though, how a group allocation for second round would look like. The devil is probably in the detail. I just don't see Norceca or Asia being fine with the danger of ending up with only two spots for WCH.
Generally it would also be a good opportunity to give some importance back to the continental championships which could nicely serve as qualifying tournaments. But i am pretty sure the federations rather prefer having seperate tournaments, mainly for commercial reasons.
My 2 main points against this system are:
1. Intercontinental rounds are the essence of the WCH itself, not (main part of) the qualifiers. The best teams across all continents should be there, not the best in shape. This new system might guarantee better teams or more European teams, for instance, but doesn't guarantee diversity. Which is what a WCH is. And this is the largest (in terms of participants) international volleyball event, after all.2. Not all teams will have the chance to fight for a WCH spot. I fear only a limited number of teams in Asia, Africa, and Europe will participate in the continental qualification round.
Valid arguments.
Regarding the bolded part, this "problem" could actually be solved with continental championships serving as qualification tournament. On a positive side effect, this would also mean a tournament less in the international calendar.
But generally and putting into consideration how FIVB is organised and how decisions were made in the past, i rather don't see such a systen coming through the FIVB decision process anyway.....
I think it might well be a side effect of the ongoing "cold war" between FIVB and CEV. When Aleksandar Boričić was elected to lead CEV, he stated that one of his priorities was to scrap the continental qualifiers (for both the Olympics and WCh) and have the ECh serve as the qualifiying tournament instead. Obviously the FIVB has a final say in such matters and I can easily see them be like "Oh, you don't want to organize a qualifying tournament for the WCh? Fine, but WE WILL." Because, of course, there can never be too many tournaments.
And I agree that there has to be a catch somewhere as I can't believe they'd risk Asia and North America stay completely empty-handed.
I don't have any idea why FIVB would be as stupid like this if its true.
Most of the NT players are currently in Europe and the best players outside of Brazilian Superliga are also playing in Champions League or CEV Cup.
Like it or not CEV should be given a special treatment because of their grueling demands for their club season.
Display MoreMy 2 main points against this system are:
1. Intercontinental rounds are the essence of the WCH itself, not (main part of) the qualifiers. The best teams across all continents should be there, not the best in shape. This new system might guarantee better teams or more European teams, for instance, but doesn't guarantee diversity. Which is what a WCH is. And this is the largest (in terms of participants) international volleyball event, after all.
2. Not all teams will have the chance to fight for a WCH spot. I fear only a limited number of teams in Asia, Africa, and Europe will participate in the continental qualification round.
Maybe it's just me. I don't understand what the problem is/was with the normal qualification system.
Thanks for the detailed answer but I don't agree with your arguments.
1-Diversity is not WCh's main point. Priority should be given to be a tournament consisting of 'best teams in the world'. Giving 2 slots to each continent already guarantee enough diversity. If you really think 12 European teams will manage to eliminate all Norceca and Asia teams in the intercontinental tournaments and dominate the tournament, let's be it! If they will use serpentine system, probably there will be some groups without any European teams anyway
2-This is not true, if 2 best teams would come from continental championships. Continental championships have several qualification rounds that include every team in each federation. So each team will have the chance to reach ECh and subsequently to WCh.
Current system has problems, It doesn't allow to make a tournament of "best teams".
Display MoreThanks for the detailed answer but I don't agree with your arguments.
1-Diversity is not WCh's main point. Priority should be given to be a tournament consisting of 'best teams in the world'. Giving 2 slots to each continent already guarantee enough diversity. If you really think 12 European teams will manage to eliminate all Norceca and Asia teams in the intercontinental tournaments and dominate the tournament, let's be it! If they will use serpentine system, probably there will be some groups without any European teams anyway
2-This is not true, if 2 best teams would come from continental championships. Continental championships have several qualification rounds that include every team in each federation. So each team will have the chance to reach ECh and subsequently to WCh.
Current system has problems, It doesn't allow to make a tournament of "best teams".
1. Then what is the main point? It is EXACTLY the participation of all teams (through qualification) that should guarantee the best representatives (from each continent) reach the final round WHERE intercontinental matches take place in order to determine the world champion. Diversity is something you can ignore in a smaller, commercial tournament (VNL, World Cup, etc.). I would even argue that you can ignore diversity in an Olympics tournament where you only have 12 teams anyway, but this is just my opinion. Furthermore, 2 slots allocated for each continent, no matter the size, is obviously wrong. You can't expect South America, with 10 countries in total, some of those probably without volleyball at all, to have the same number as Asia or Europe. Even if we forget that, 2 teams from 4 continents and 16 from Europe, for instance, in theory, is not a WCH but an expanded ECH plus a few guests.
2. This is not what will happen because you have a separate qualification process. You either take the continental tournament (not qualifier), be it ECH, SACH, ACH, etc., as a qualifier (which will be alright and, as discussed many times here, is perfect as a re-establishment of those continental events) or create separate tournaments to which you allow ALL teams to participate. I would like the first option, but probably the latter will be applied. Now you would say the continental championship results will be taken into account when inviting certain teams for the alleged qualifiers, granting only 2 slots, but the rankings comprise of other (intercontinental) tournaments, too, not just the continental ones. Which brings us back to the point that smaller nations or those which are behind in, pretty much, the FIVB World Ranking, won't even participate. This is a problem.
There is no perfect system, I agree, but the proposed one offers more problems than solutions, to me at least. The WCH is a tournament of the best teams and, in fact, the only tournament where you HAVE the best teams in the world. The only discussion was whether Africa should get 3 slots instead of 2, whether their slot should've been given to, let's say South America, and whether NORCECA deserves 5. But 1-2 slots in 24-team format can be disputed without hindering all teams across federations from qualification and then watching the very best in the finals.
Weren't you happy with the teams at the 2014 and 2018 WCH, for instance? You said we didn't have all the best teams out there but, in fact, we did! I don't see why we should change the format then.